Hey Regis Prograis, You See Any Holes In Mikey Garcia’s Game?

If he keeps this up, he will supplant Philbin as the most famous “Regis” in America.

If Regis Prograis, the 29 year old Louisiana native who lives and trains in Texas, keeps kicking tails, and brings that power, that assassin intent onto bigger stages, bye bye talk show guy, and hello fighter, as “most famous Philbin.”

We talked about this name game, and what will perhaps unfold in the near and a bit further away future for the 21-0 (18 KOs) boxer, who fights under the DiBella Entertainment banner, and showed his wares on ShoBox last Friday.

Prograis dealt a whuppin’ on Julius Indongo, now 22-2, but not everyone was severely overwhelmed by the showing. That’s because some suspect the 35 year old Namibian came into the Deadwood, South Dakota ring a bit shot, on iffy legs. Well, the legs got real iffy right quick when Prograis started ripping shots at the ex 140 champ, that we can say for certain.

That ripping of shots…that intent…it looks to me like he has an “old school” style, in that he punches THROUGH his target…he doesn’t have a skill payin’ bill mindset…

“You’e definitely right,” he answered. “I feel like I’m a boxing historian, I study a lot of boxing, my favorite fighters are the old school fighters.” So Joe Gans, Henry Armstrong, Joe Louis, Roberto Duran, MIke Tyson, he looks up to them, tries to take some of the best attributes of people like them. Guys that went out to “punish their opponent,” he wants to be like them.

I do wonder, so I did ask, what type of personality do you have to be able to have that vicious intent? He said he can turn it on and turn it off, so that’s not a problem for him. But yeah, you have to “have a different type of brain,” Prograis allowed. “Once I start fightin,’ I’m a killer, I turn into something totally different.”

He’s at 140, not a glamour division, but a division can transform real quick, to become more noteworthy, if there’s one star there who attracts attention. Prograis has begun to…

140 had an attractant in Terence Crawford, but he wants XXL fights, ASAP, so he jetted to 147. Does Prograis think he will be on a collision course with the Nebraska boxer, who will next tango with Jeff Horn, who holds a welter belt?

“Yeah, I think so, I definitely think so,” Prograis said. He wants to fight him, now, and even then, last year…but the time wasn’t right. “Now he’s up to 147, I think that fight would happen eventually.” Mikey Garcia, in the “next year or year and a half,” Prograis thinks that will happen, for sure.

Ponder that, please…

I think that’s a super fight. I think Regis is the best athlete, the boxer with the best innate skill, that Mikey has fought in I don’t know how long, maybe forever.

“In a year or year and half I think me and Mikey Garcia will have one of the biggest fights in boxing,” he repeated.

That will be like Canelo versus Triple G, he said, without sounding cocky, he just sounded SURE.

“He is not spectauclar but he does everything right,” said Prograis. “Mikey is very fundamental, he’s very basic. He sticks to his fundamentals, I actually didn’t see a lot of holes in his fight against Sergey Lipinets…he hit Lipinets with a lot of shots but he missed a lot of shots also. If you come with head movement, it’ll give him a little bit of trouble. I can give him a lot of head movement. Lipinets wasn’t coming back off his head movement. He was moving his head, but he wasn’t punching off of it. He wasn’t punching in between. That’s one thing that could possibly give him some trouble. And on top of that, I’m a southpaw, left, right, coming from different angles. I seen it live, so it’s always better to see it live, and see the effect of the punches.” Mikey had a great chin, and both men impressed Prograis mightily, he said. Prograis said he could see himself fighting Lipinets soon, too. Next is probably the winner of the Jose Ramirez v Amir Imam fight, they square off Saturday at MSG Theater. Prograis has the WBC interim 140 belt and the “real” one is up for grabs between Ramirez and Imam.

Prograis versus Adrien Broner, in New Orleans, that would be fan friendly, he also offered.